The European Commission launched an investigation into Google's search practices back in November 2010. The investigation followed complaints from search providers, U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French legal search service ejustice.fr, and Microsoft-owned U.K. search engine Ciao. Almunia's office said it planned to examine whether Google artificially lowered rankings while boosting its own services.

Since then, a host of companies have come out to level more complaints against Google. Microsoft last year filed a formal complaint against Google, saying that the search giant "has taken to entrench its dominance in the markets for online search and search advertising to the detriment of European consumers." Just last month, TripAdvisor filed a complaint, charging Google with "anticompetitive and unfair practices...that harm the marketplace and consumer welfare."

A decision on the matter could come down at any time. Back in January, Almunia said that he had expected reports from investigators by the end of the first quarter, indicating a decision could come down soon after. In today's interview with Reuters, however, he didn't say when he could make a decision on the investigation and has yet to send Google a statement of objections or charge sheet to get the formal complaint underway.

For its part, Google has said that it will cooperate with any and all regulators. That's probably a good thing: it's currently being investigated in the U.S., as well.

About the author

Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
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